test-drb November 2009

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

175 participants
194 discussions

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

A old issue of Datamation (Nov 1977, I think - its out in the van right now) had a very short blurb about some upcoming S/360s I have never heard about - models 58 and 7. The 7 intrigues me, being described as a machine smaller than the model 20, which would make it fit somewhere in the minicomputer realm. I doubt these machines ever saw the light of day - likely never even left the back of the napkin at the diner in Poughkeepsie. -- Will

15 years, 1 month

286 to 386 processor upgrades (and the amiga bridgeboard)

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

I just bought a 286 bridge board for the amiga. Much fun awaits... Does anyone know of a stash of 286 to 386 processor upgrades anywhere? I seem to remember a few companies marketing these. Also, iirc, there's a daughter card on the bridge board that covers the 286 socket. Any idea what I can use to widen the gap between the daughter (sandwich) card and the bridge board so that the processor upgrade would fit? Some short ribbon cables might be all it takes. I have an ide caching controller, scsi controller, sound blaster board, and network board ready to plug in. Still need a vga board. I have a 5.25" floppy floating around somewhere, but i'd like to find one of those 5.25" and 3.5" floppy combo drives. Imagine the possibilities :-) What I'd really like to find is one of those isa bus extenders that plug into a passive back plane in another case. With the external scsi tower, that would go a long way toward turning my 2000 into amigazilla. :-) brian

15 years, 1 month

VC-F. (Was Re: Cromemco Z-2 and IMSAI 8080 at Purdue)

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

> Message: 3 > Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:19:34 -0500 > From: Bryan Pope <bryan.pope at comcast.net> > Subject: Re: Cromemco Z-2 and IMSAI 8080 at Purdue >> >> >>> Can we just call Erik's web board the VC Forum? >>> >>> >> <smartass> >> >> But then you'll annoy venture capitalists -grin- >> >> </smartass> >> > Tag dutifully taken! :p > > I was hoping the crowd here would automatically know that "VC" mean > "Vintage Computer" and not venture capitalists or umm..., anything > else. Outside of here, VC would of course be fair game. Irrespective of their interests, I think if you mention VC to anyone in the British Commonwealth you'll find they automatically think the abbreviation means Victoria Cross, the highest award for military gallantry. So high that most are awarded posthumously,. Someone with VC after their name gets a lot of respect here. Roger Holmes.

15 years, 1 month

ICT computer tape on eBay

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

If anyone here has bought/is going to buy any of the ICT computer tapes from eBay (current item number 380177625923), then I probably have the only machine in the world that can read them. As I already have about 300 of these, I'm not willing to shell out 20 pounds each for them, and they may be blank anyway. However I might be missing out on data that is on them, so if either you would like to know what's on them or don't mind giving me the chance to read them then I would be vary happy to do so. You might be thinking they are standard 7 track of 9 track tapes. They aren't. They fit the Ampex TM4 drives fitted to the ICT 1300/1301/1302 (and also to the Leo 3 I think) and are ten track devices with (for the computer industry), non standard hubs. The hubs are the audio/video standard hubs, and I suspect some buyers think they are 1/4 inch audio tapes as the vendor does not spell out that they are 1/2 inch (though I questioned this and they are 1/2 inch). I suppose they will make interesting ornaments for the wall. As they've no labels they're probably blank, but who knows, they might contain the holy grail of a copy of the 1302 Executive. Roger Holmes Owner of 'Flossie' the worlds last working ICT 1301, delivered to the University of London 1962 for administration, like grading exam results and printing certificates.

15 years, 1 month

MR-78 programs for a DEC VT-78?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Hi, All, After years of looking, thanks to a tip from this list, I finally have a VT-78 to play with. I got a complete WPS-78 system except for the cart - CPU, RX78 floppy enclosure, and DEC-badged Diablo Hytype? II daisywheel printer and all the cables. So far, everything checks out. The CPU came with an MR-78 ROM pack on it. For those that might not know, it's an optional bolt-on firmware box that attaches to a DB25 plug and simulates a high-speed papertape reader. From reviewing the MR-78 printset (at the end of some of the electronic copies of the VT-78 printset), it appears that DEC sold it with several sets of firmware - there's at least a WPS78 load and a diagnostic firmware load, and possibly one or two more. Are there any ROM dumps of the MR-78 anywhere? In all my years of collecting PDP-8 parts and software and docs, I've never seen any, but I might as well ask. The circuit is utterly trivial to reproduce, and, of course, the size of modern ROMs would make it a no-brainer to make an uber-MR-78 with all known versions of the firmware on it, or with user-definable content as well (the code is stored as 8-bit bytes simulating a papertape stream (either BIN or RIM (have to check the "panel ROM code" to see which one) with some functionality removed (no RUBOUT, no pauses, and such)). Obviously I can dump the one I have, but it would be interesting to review the contents of the others. Thanks for any pointers on the MR-78 and its contents. -ethan

15 years, 1 month

Kenbak PCB wanted

by jdr_use＠bluewin.ch

There have been various successful attempts at recreating the Kenbak. If anyone has a spare PCB for sale, I'd be interested. Jos Dreesen

15 years, 1 month

Kenbak PCB

by jos.dreesen＠bluewin.ch

There have been various successful attempts at recreating the Kenbak. If anyone has a spare PCB for sale, I'd be interested. Jos Dreesen

15 years, 1 month

Tektronix 4225 -- is it an X terminal?

by andreas＠haertel-net.de

Hi, I?ve found this thread when googled the web. I?ve got a TEK 4225 also, but there isn?t any docs anywhere. The graphics functions work fine over serial line with my MicroVAX. But no more information about the AUI interface and its setup exists in web. Have you got something else in the meantime? cheers Andreas

15 years, 1 month

Software/documentation for the LSI-11 inside a Bridgeport Series II CNC milling machine?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Hi, All, I was helping someone in town with some motor issues on their circa-1980 Bridgeport CNC mill for which they fortunately have many original docs. I was tremendously surprised to find that there's an LSI-11 in the heart of the CNC cabinet. The docs have schematics, register maps, etc., and even instructions for how to use the Bridgeport punched-tape-loadable diagnostics. Fortunately, this unit has the optional punched-tape reader. Unfortunately, it has no tapes. I've done some cursory looking around and little is leaping out at me (except frequent mentions of folks who have upgraded away from the original CNC package). I'm wondering if anyone on the list knows where to pick up images of the diagnostic software for this thing. Thanks for any tips or hints. -ethan

15 years, 1 month

BBC report of "first computer virus"

by cclist＠sydex.com

A tidbit about Fred Cohen and the First Ever Computer Virus on the Beeb: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8366703.stm Except that I'm thinking that "first ever" is an exaggeration. Perhaps "first ever published for review". Even the name wasn't new in 1983. Around 1973, ten years earlier, I recall a CDC Sunnyvale ops emplyee got into some mischief on the Development Center 6400 running SCOPE 3.4 by writing a rather simple program that made use of two PP calls-- RSJ, to reschedule a job and RPV the "reprieve" service, used to recover from a job-terminating error, including a normal EOJ. The net result was that the job filled up the input queue with copies of itself and any attempt by the operator to kill it would simply spawn more copies. I seem to remember that the message displayed by the job was "You have caught a virus" or something similar. The only way out of the mess was to initiate a non-recovery deadstart of the system and then sort through jobs submitted for running before resubmitting them to find the culprit. I don't recall the name of the employee or what division he worked for; only that the COMSOURCE people wanted his head on a pike. This was about the time of one of many layoffs, so the guy may have been a short-timer anyway and just wanted to fire a parting shot. Does anyone else have a similar (earlier) story? --Chuck

15 years, 1 month

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test-drb November 2009